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Alton

Ghost town · Hempstead County, Arkansas

Patmos quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1951, 1:24,000)
Patmos quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1951, 1:24,000) · U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain

Alton is a ghost town in Hempstead County, Arkansas. It is one of 13 former communities in Hempstead County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 18th among the 74 Arkansas counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists Alton as a historical populated place on the Patmos topographic quadrangle: the name is no longer in official use for a community, whether the settlement was abandoned, absorbed into a neighbouring town or renamed. The recorded location is 33.5626° N, 93.5899° W.

Key facts

USGS quadranglePatmos
Elevation323 ft
Nearest living townPatmos, AR
Distance to it3.8 miles
GNIS feature ID61460
Coordinates33.56262, -93.58990

Open the location on a map

Then and now

Drag the slider: the old USGS map on the left, the same ground from the air today on the right. Both cover the same 1.9-mile square centred on the recorded location.

Alton today, aerial view
Patmos quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1951, 1:24,000)

Left: Patmos quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1951, 1:24,000), U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection. Right: The same ground today: NAIP aerial imagery, USDA Farm Service Agency, National Agriculture Imagery Program (via USGS). Both public domain.

What's there now

Alton is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Patmos, AR (population 60), about 3.8 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 323 feet above sea level. The aerial view above shows what covers the ground today. Much of the land around former townsites is private; check access before you visit.

Nearby places

Questions

Where is Alton?

Alton is in Hempstead County, Arkansas, at 33.5626, -93.5899.

How many ghost towns are in Hempstead County?

Hempstead County, Arkansas has 13 ghost towns on record at Wayfarrow.

Sources and licences

Facts marked "approximately" carry an uncertain date in the source. Text on this page is generated from the sources above; no encyclopedia prose is copied. Last updated 2026-11-05.